


Children of War

by AbVeAnTdAeRr



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 03:15:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30082644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbVeAnTdAeRr/pseuds/AbVeAnTdAeRr
Summary: Collection of Drabbles/One-Shots. Random Pairings. Basically, a series of exaggerated depictions of how war has impacted the A:TLA characters.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Yue (Avatar), Toph Beifong/Sokka
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue

They can paint smiles, carve its features into their face, and recreate what they've forgotten.

But it's never the same. It doesn't hold the same truth as it used to.

They can pretend they're children and laugh at jokes that have lost their warmth. But deep down - in the depths of their own dying innocence - they know there isn't much left.

War. A thief. This giant with rough hands and a choking grip. It has ruined everything for them. Stepping on promising futures and never-ending horizons. You see it in their stride, in their eyes. The war has made it this way. Made it so that they only know color through a black and white lens.

And they just wish the war would leave them; remove its hands from their necks so they can breathe. But it is a part of them now. It has forced its way into their character. It has divided their heart into halves, eating the one and corrupting the other. This truth is hard to admit. And even harder to endure.

This is the cost of peace. The thick and bitter medicine you swallow to save yourself. Hurting and hurting until there is nothing left but submissive behavior and a burning throat. Sacrifice. It's the only thing they know.

And they'll try to hide it. Poor attempts at draping their own misfortunes in fake expressions. A laugh too loud. A kiss too wet.

Soon, everything will have been a lie. And the veracity of it all will be nothing more than a glance back at what used to be.

Paved by war, grief is the road they travel. Walking. Never stopping.

They wonder where it ends.


	2. Reaching For The Sky

When it isn't too cold, he'll sit outside. Staring at a black universe. A ceiling of lonely stars and stretching space.

He lays on his back and imagines grabbing it. Extending an open palm to take the sky. Remove the blanket which covers the Earth and wrap it around himself so that he has become the center.

He will feel powerful with the knowledge that it can be his. He can become the universe. No, bigger than that. He can become the axis on which it spins. He can be someone rather than no one.

This excites him and he knows it shouldn't. But he can't help it. All his life, insignificance has marked him and left him in the background. In pictures of his own life, his existence is seen through silhouettes. Shadows of his form struggling to find room.

So, he lifts his arm from the ground. He has made up his mind. An arm comes up with trembling fingers. He hopes to take something greater than himself. Confidence boils within him and he feels like it's truly happening. Finally, the sky will be his. Finally -

"Sokka? What are you doing?"

Her words are slow in his mind but it burns through his confidence like parchment. His hopes fall as fast as his arm does.

In this moment, he realizes. There is too much space between his arm and the sky. He wonders how such distance can appear before him in mere inches.

His face is starting to burn now. He must look crazy.

He exhales. "Nothing. Just dreaming."

Katara laughs and says, "Okay. Don't dream too much though. Or you may end up falling asleep."

His voice becomes a dead whisper. "Yeah... I know."


End file.
